Avoir or ÊTRE in the passé composé?

The words passé and composé mean ‘compound past’. The passé composé always has two parts:

the helping verb, also called auxiliary

the past participle

There are only two possible auxiliaries in French ÊTRE or AVOIR.

AVOIR or ÊTRE ? – THREE RULES

1.Most French verbs take AVOIR.

2.All pronominal verbs – use SE or S’ in their infinitive form – use ÊTRE.

3.There are 17 verbs that also use ÊTRE as a helping verb (see ‘Dr & Mrs Van der Trampp’ below).

Dr Mrs Van der Trampp - ÊTRE

There are 17 verbs that also use ÊTRE as a helping verb. Grammar books have different ways of organizing them. I find the simplest way is to decline them as Dr & Mrs Van der Trampp as the acronym for this list of verbs:

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